


Of Mundane Thoughts

by Larilyn



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Stranger Things (TV 2016), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Crossover, Darcy Lewis Bingo 2020, F/M, Gen, Ladies of Marvel Bingo 2020, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Post-Stranger Things 3, What Have I Done, WinterShock - Freeform, sam wilson bingo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:20:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27570670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Larilyn/pseuds/Larilyn
Summary: I have no idea how this happened...Takes place after Captain America: Civil War which makes the youngest Stranger Things kids in their mid-forties. Seriously. I have no idea how this happened.Chapter one fillsLadies of Marvel Bingo Square L3 "Curses"Darcy Lewis Bingo Square C3 "Van"Sam Wilson Bingo Square O1 "Team Cap"When Team Cap accidentally opens the gate to the Upside Down, it is up to Eleven and Mike's adult daughter to save the world.
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler, James "Bucky" Barnes/Darcy Lewis
Comments: 44
Kudos: 41
Collections: Darcy Lewis Bingo, Ladies of Marvel Bingo 2020, Sam Wilson Bingo 2020





	1. One

**Lowell, Michigan**

“You have to eat, Jane,” Darcy complained. She reached over and turned off the monitor displaying the computerized readings from the telescope.

Jane turned it back on. “I did eat.”

“Poptarts don’t count!” Darcy argued as she snapped it off again.

Jane’s return retort was drowned out by the ringtone on Darcy’s phone.

Darcy frowned at the number, “What’s wrong, Uncle Will?” She asked without even saying hello.

**Hawkins, Indiana**

Sam watched quietly as Steve became more frantic.

“They were right here!”

Sam sent Redwing back out to gather more data as Steve continued to literally tear things apart.

“They were right here!” Steve repeated.

Under his breath, Sam offered, “I heard you.”

The readings Redwing was sending back were… wrong.

* * *

Wanda Maximoff was freezing. She shivered uncontrollably and stared up at the sunless sky.

An arm went around her shoulders, “They’ll find us,” Natasha promised. “Steve and Sam will find us.”

Wanda shook her head, “I don’t think they can. Because I don’t think we’re in the same world as they are anymore.”

Natasha called out anyway, “Steve! Sam!”

* * *

“What happened?” Bucky asked the second Sam and Steve walked in the door without the women.

“We lost them,” Steve practically whispered.

Silently he cursed them both for letting them go without him. The missing arm. The brainwashing. They were valid reasons to leave him behind. But… “They’re….?”

“Missing,” Sam clarified. “We literally lost them.”

**Hwy 131**

Jane sat next to Darcy in the van, seething.

“You lied to me.”

“I didn’t,” Darcy argued. “I _was_ a poli sci major. I just happen to also have majored in physics.”

“Which you conveniently left off your application. And how did you fake your transcript?”

Darcy stared straight ahead, her eyes drilling into the road in front of her. “I know people.”

“You lied to me,” Jane repeated.

“I was protecting you,” Darcy argued. “And I didn’t lie about most things.”

“Really? Like what?”

Darcy could feel Jane’s anxiety rolling off of her in waves. She wanted to ease it for her friend, but that would be an invasion that Jane probably wouldn’t appreciate.

“You’re my best friend. And I love you. Seriously. Ask me anything, Jane.”

“Are you really from Indiana?”

Darcy nodded, “Born and raised.”

“Were your parents really childhood sweethearts?”

“Yep. Got married the day after they graduated high school and had me exactly nine months later. Grandpa Hop tells me that every year on my birthday. I’m not sure if he’s proud or appalled.”

“Mike and Elle Lewis from Gary, Indiana,” Jane recited as if she was reading her application.

“Wheeler. It was Wheeler. My parents had to change their last name. For our protection.”

“For your _protection_? Darcy, what the hell? What are we getting into?”

“Hopefully nothing. Just an unusual energy surge near the gate, that my Uncle Will had a bad feeling about. He just wants us to check out.” Darcy turned briefly to her best friend, keeping an eye on the road at the same time. “Jane, I wanted to be your intern because you’re the smartest person on the planet. I didn’t lie about that. But I also thought that someday you may have to help me save the world from whatever may come out of that gate. I need your help, Jane.”

Jane sighed, but promised, “You have it.

They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes before Jane leaned over and whispered, “Do you really have superpowers?”

“I wouldn’t call them super.”

“But they’re powers… Have you ever used them on me?” Jane seemed more curious than indignant.

“I don’t like to use them without permission.”

“You don’t _like_ to… which means you did.”

“I had to Jane! You didn’t even notice that I hired an intern. You didn’t eat. You didn’t shower. You were stinky.”

“I wasn’t,” Jane began to protest.

Darcy gave her a side-eye, “So stinky, Jane.

**Hawkins, Indiana**

“You should have let me go with you,” Bucky growled, for the fifth time.

Sam was running data through his computer, looking for any sign of Natasha and Wanda.

Steve just paced. Back and forth, like a caged lion. “It was a Hydra base, Buck. Not putting you through that.”

Bucky knew what Steve really meant. They couldn’t trust _him_ near a Hydra base. To avoid dwelling on that thought, Bucky asked, “Walk me through it again.”

“We were at the facility. Abandoned. We were following the energy source. Wanda used her powers and they were just…gone.”

“Why did she use her powers?”

“There was…something…” Steve’s brow was furrowed in thought.

“Steve saw the boogeyman,” Sam teased, still looking at the readouts from Redwing on his computer.

Bucky shot him a dirty look but kept most of his focus on Steve. “You see what it was?” Bucky asked.

Steve paused a second, thought, then nodded.

“Draw it.”

Sam looked up from the computer and nodded. It was just a quiet acknowledgment that he appreciated Bucky giving Steve something productive to do.

* * *

“I’m useless,” Wanda apologized.

Natasha cleaned the creature’s blood off of her hands with some stray fabric she had found lying around.

“You aren’t useless.”

“No powers,” Wanda said with a shake of her head, “Useless.”

“When we get back, we’ll work on your self-defense, so you won’t have to rely on your powers.”

Wanda let out a series of hacking coughs, then shook her head, “Don’t think we’re getting out of here.”

“We’ll also work on your attitude.”

“How long have we been here?” Wanda asked.

Natasha looked at the young woman, who was becoming paler and paler, with darker and darker circles under her eyes. “Too long.”

**Hawkins, Indiana**

“Who’s meeting us there?” Jane asked as Darcy drove the rental van too quickly.

“No one.”

Jane was incredulous, “Wait… you tell me that there is a super-secret gateway to another dimension…”

“The Upside Down,” Darcy clarified.

“…and that your family is somehow cursed with guarding it….”

“It’s not a curse. It’s just…a responsibility.” Darcy paused a minute, “Dunno, maybe it is a curse.”

“…But no one is coming to help us?”

“I told you. They’re in hiding.”

“You could be a little more forthcoming, Darce.”

“I’m trying, Jane. There’s just a lot…”

They rounded a turn and there it was, a large, abandoned building complex with an eight-foot fence around it. Razor wire topped the already too tall fence.

“That’s not creepy or anything,” Jane muttered.

“Just a quick look-see. It’s too close to sunset. Believe me, we don’t want to be there in the dark.”

Jane wholeheartedly agreed. She definitely did not want to be there in the dark. And she wasn’t gonna ask why. Because the answer was probably weird.

They pulled up to the gatehouse and a car was already there. A man, probably in his sixties, but intimidating nonetheless, stood there with his arms crossed over his chest.

Darcy got out of the van and slammed the door in clear irritation, “You shouldn’t be here.”

The man gruffly replied, “Neither should you, kid.”

Then he opened his arms and Darcy stepped in for a hug. Almost too quietly for Jane to hear, Darcy said, “Missed you, Grandpa Hop.”

“Missed you too, Darcy girl.” He let her go and gave Jane a brusque once over. “This the genius?”

“Yep. Jane Foster, meet my Grandpa.”

He held out his large, calloused hand and offered, “Jim Hopper.”

“Hopkins,” Darcy corrected absently as she approached the fence and looked at the building.

“Damn. I suck at the whole secret identity thing.”

“The little Spider-kid has a secret identity, grandpa. You have a _fake_ identity.”

And much like a child, her grandfather replied, “Well so do you.”

Darcy let a little grin cross her face but she still was staring at the building when she asked, “Who opened the gate?”

Her grandfather shrugged, “If I didn’t know better, I’d say the Avengers did.”


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fills:  
> Square Y3 "Ava Starr" of Ladies of Marvel Bingo

Steve didn’t miss being Captain America. He didn’t miss the pressure. He didn’t miss being thought of as a symbol instead of a person.

Most days he didn’t miss being an Avenger. He had the people he trusted most with him. He was still helping people.

But today… damn, he missed Stark tech.

“See anything?”

Bucky peered through the view scope on his rifle, “Just the two vehicles, just like I already said.”

“Can’t you say cars, like a normal person?” Sam asked through the communicator with a teasing amiable tone.

Bucky clenched his jaw in irritation. “One is technically a _van_.”

“Focus,” Steve scolded.

“Movement,” Bucky interrupted. “First floor. Two women. One man.”

“Weapons?” Steve asked.

“A handgun and baseball bats.”

* * *

“Janey? You okay?” Darcy asked.

“Peachy. Just looking for monsters.” Jane glanced down at her hands and commented on what they held, “And I have a bat.”

“Bats are better,” Darcy argued. “No need to reload.”

“What is the plan again?” Jane asked nervously.

“We check out the gate. See how far open it’s gotten. And if I can, I close it.”

“And if you can’t?”

Darcy’s grandfather answered, “We get the hell out, and then we call her mother. They can close it together.”

“And there’s no one else that can do it? Besides you?” Jane asked, gripping the bat tighter.

“There are others,” Darcy admitted, “But I have no idea where they are…”

“Fourteen was the last one I kept track of,” Darcy’s grandfather offered, “Her family got to keep her, Ava was her name. Her father took a position with Shield to keep her safe.”

“What happened to her?” Jane asked, in the same hushed voice they were all using.

“Quantum explosion in Argentina,” Darcy explained, “Even with her powers, I’m not sure she could survive absorbing that much quantum energy.”

Jane hated to be rude but her curiosity was the only thing keeping her from panicking over their surroundings. “And your mom was…?”

“Eleven. My mom was number eleven.”

* * *

Steve was torn.

He could call out and alert the small group that they weren’t alone. But the noise could attract the creatures. Then again if he snuck up on them, the group may scream and they would also alert the creatures. Frankly, the petite woman holding the bat like a vice seemed like the type of person who would beat the crap out of him before even realizing he was on her side.

Bucky was in his ear, “What the hell?”

His voice was tinny through the communicator. Steve waited for Bucky to elaborate.

“There is a creature approaching the group. Jesus, what the hell?”

Quietly, Steve teased, “You always did have a way with words, Buck.”

Sam then piped up from his view through a window on the other side of the building. “There is no way those three will be able to hold off that thing.”

Steve picked up the pace and jogged towards the unsuspecting group.

“What the hell are they doing here anyway?”

“Maybe they’re Hydra,” Sam suggested.

Bucky countered, “They’re armed with baseball bats. They’re not Hydra.”

Sam yelled, “Steve! It’s charging!”

Steve broke into a full run.

* * *

Jane jumped when Hop’s gun fired. She was not used to that sort of noise. And she was a little embarrassed that she let out a scream.

She had her hands over her ears and fought against every instinct in her body. It was screaming at her to run. Instead, she went to pick up the bat she had dropped.

A masculine hand picked it up instead.

Captain Freaking America hit the creature in the face hard enough to send it skidding down the hall.

Darcy looked at him in surprise. She had been beating the creature and her own bat was dripping with the creature’s blood.

“Thanks,” she breathed out, while at the same time her grandfather growled, “Who the hell are you?”

“It’s Captain America,” Jane said with just a tinge of awe.

Cap went towards the creature but Darcy stopped him with a hand to his chest.

“Thanks, but now that I have some room, I’ve got this.”

“Excuse me ma’am but…”

“Ugh, typical! Big strong man thinks he needs to save me. And don’t call me ma’am. I’m not that old.”

Darcy raised her hand and looked at the creature intensely. It had been climbing to its feet, but stopped and wobbled. The creature let out a whine and then laid down. It continued to whine until it stopped breathing.

Steve touched his ear like he was listening to something and Jane noticed a communicator in his ear. “There’s a pack of them coming.”

He grabbed the bat tighter.

Darcy pulled on his arm. “No…. we retreat. It’s gotten too dark in here anyway. We’ll come back in the morning. Was hoping none of them came out of the gate.”

Cap looked down the hallway and back at Darcy.

She steeled herself, “They’re stronger at night. And each one I have to kill drains my battery. We have to go.”

Jane had no idea that Darcy could command so much authority. So much, in fact, that Captain Freaking America followed her orders.


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bingo fills:  
> Ladies of Marvel Bingo square Y4 "Look you made me something vicious"  
> Darcy Lewis Bingo square R1 "Yes I did"

Sam would follow Steve Rogers to the ends of the universe. He really would. But sometimes he wanted to hit the guy with a brick.

As soon as the girl, Darcy, walked out of the building she started to wobble. Bucky reached for her, but with one arm, scooping her up into a bridal carry would be problematic. Sam gave Barnes a little nod as he lifted Darcy into his arms.

“How did she do that?” Barnes asked with awe.

“It’s what she does,” the older man replied gruffly.

Sam recognized the other woman from intelligence reports. Jane Foster, astrophysicist, and associate of Thor.

“We need to go back,” Steve proclaimed as if he hadn’t just walked out of there voluntarily. “Sam, Buck, let’s go.”

“You aren’t going back in,” the older man scolded, “I don’t care if you are Captain America or Captain Underpants. Without her, you don’t stand a chance.”

“How long before she can go back in? Miss? Can you stand?”

“Cap,” Sam scolded.

Darcy moaned a little and as God was Sam’s witness, tried to wiggle out of Sam’s arms.

* * *

Darcy sat down hard on the motel bed and then fell back. They’d faced six more demodogs on the way out. Cap took out two. Darcy took out the rest. After that, things were a blur, although she thinks she remembers being carried into the van by the Falcon.

Jane filled her in on the rest when she regained consciousness. Now they were staying in the same motel as Captain America.

All she wanted to do was close her eyes and sleep for a year. But she was just down the hall from the Avengers and she expected them to descend upon her like vultures at any minute.

“Darcy-girl,” Her grandfather started.

“I’m fine. Just a headache. Not used to using my powers.”

Jane’s voice, which was usually pretty pleasant, sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard, “You mean you don’t use them all the time?”

“Told you. Don’t use them unless you ask…” she mumbled and then added just before she fell asleep, “Go home, grandpa. I can handle it.”

* * *

Steve and Sam were on their way to the room that they had put Lewis and Foster in when the man emerged.

“Hey,” Steve grabbed the elbow of the man that Miss Lewis had called Grandpa Hop.

The man looked down at his hand and then back up at Steve with disbelief and barely restrained irritation.

“Pretty sure you should let go of me, Cap.”

Sam grabbed Steve’s elbow and scolded once again, “Cap.”

“Sorry. I’m sorry,” Steve scaled back his own aggressive tendencies and let go.

Sam took over the questioning. He had a feeling he could get more information out of the man than Steve could. You can catch more flies with sugar, was what Sam’s grandma used to say.

“Sir. We have friends back there. We need to know what is happening.”

“You going back in there guns blazing won’t help your friends. It will just get you killed. Darcy’s right. Go back during the day.”

Steve demanded, “What were those things?”

Sam allowed himself a sigh of frustration. They weren’t going to get anywhere with this.

“Listen, kid, I could stand here jawing or I could go get reinforcements. Which would you prefer?”

Steve took a step back.

“My granddaughter will fill you in. Just give her a little time to rest.” As he was walking away, the man added, “And don’t open any more portals to other dimensions, okay kid?”

“Sir?” Sam asked before the man went away, “Is she going to be all right? Your granddaughter?”

The man nodded, “Darcy’s tough. Like her mom.”

* * *

Natasha was starting to feel it. She was getting sick. Just like Wanda.

It wasn’t something she could afford to do. She had to stay strong, or they wouldn’t make it. Wanda could barely stand already.

Wanda was curled up with her head in Nat’s lap. Natasha ran her fingers through her scalp in a soothing manner anytime Wanda moved or coughed, murmuring promises that they would be fine.

By Natasha’s estimation, they had been here for a day or two at the most. She figured they had twelve hours, tops.

“Hurry up, Steve,” she whispered.

* * *

Darcy could hear the arguing voices interrupting her sleep. She screwed her eyes shut tighter and tried to ignore them.

“We need answers, Dr. Foster. She doesn’t have time for a nap.”

“It’s not a nap! She needs to recharge. You saw what she did!”

Sam Wilson was the one who asked, “What exactly did she do?”

Darcy raised her hands up to her ears.

Another voice said, “Leave her alone for a minute, Steve. Can’t you see she’s in pain?”

That voice was kind. Kind enough that Darcy felt like opening her eyes and seeing who it was.

Hovering over her was a pair of silver-blue eyes with sinfully long lashes. “Hey.”

“Hey yourself,” she replied.

The blue eyes were suddenly obscured by a drawing of a demogorgon.

“What is this?” Steve Rogers demanded.

“Oh look, you made me something vicious,” she quipped, sitting up and trying to ignore the nausea that was rising in her throat.

“Steve,” the blue-eyed man scolded, “Keep your voice down.”

She held the drawing in her hands. “Demogorgon. And the thing we saw earlier was a demodog. They’re creatures from another dimension. The gate is in the basement of Hawkins lab. And we have to close it. Either with powers or Jane’s science-brain.”

“We have to get our teammates out first,” Sam said, keeping his voice at a respectfully soft level.

Darcy nodded.

“I don’t know how to…” Jane started.

“If I can’t, you have to Jane. You can find a way.”

Darcy and Jane looked at each other and let the unspoken pass between them. They could count on each other. They had to.

“Besides,” Darcy assured her, “It’s not open by much. I can close it.”

“Hawkins lab,” the blue-eyed man said, “you know it’s a front for Hydra, right?”

The pieces slid into place for Darcy. The missing arm, the haunted look, the fact that he was on the run with Captain America. This was Bucky Barnes. The Winter Soldier.

“Yes. Yes, I did.”

“That explains why the Avengers are here,” Jane muttered.

“We aren’t the Avengers. Not anymore.”

Darcy opened her mouth to protest. But Jane did it first.

“Secret Avengers. Underground Avengers. Whatever, Cap. You’re still the Avengers.”

“Why did you open the gate?” Darcy asked. “What would possess you to do that?”

Sam explained, “Wanda was drawn to it. She said it was evil. She was going to use her powers to destroy it…”

Darcy finished, “And she opened it instead. Got sucked into the Upside Down. Fantastic.”

“Upside Down?” Sam asked.

It was Jane who explained, “A parallel dimension.”

“Like an alternate timeline?”

Jane shook her head at Sam, “No. It runs parallel to our timeline. It’s just…”

“A shadow world,” Darcy finished, “Not really compatible with human life.”

Cap asked gently, way more gently than he had before, “Are you sure you can you rescue my team? And close the gate?”

“I can. I can feel the rift now. It’s barely cracked. I can do it.” She looked around the room, “Where’s Grandpa Hop?”

“He said he was mobilizing the troops, just in case.”

Darcy nodded in acknowledgment. God her head was pounding.

Steve asked, respectfully, “What did you do back there? How did you kill it?”

“I…” Darcy almost didn’t want to say. “I didn’t. I just made it feel like…I made it lose the will to live.”

Bucky realized, “You’re an empath.”

“A projecting empath. Yeah. I can feel emotions and project them. I’m not as powerful as my mother. She’s telekinetic. She can astral project too. If I can’t close the gate, she can.”

Steve asked, “She one of the troops?”

“Yeah. The most important one.”


	4. Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fills:  
> Ladies Of Marvel Bingo Square A3 "Wanda/Natasha"  
> Darcy Lewis Bingo A3 "Hurt/Comfort"

When Darcy was a toddler her surrogate family never understood why she preferred her Uncle Dustin to everyone else. Every time he played with her, held her, even ruffled her hair, she was enveloped in a cloud of joy.

For the same reason, she tended to avoid touching her Uncle Will. All he gave her was worry and sadness.

No one really realized that Darcy was an empath until she could talk.

When Darcy was six, she realized that she could manipulate emotions. It started with a feral tom cat. She turned him into a puddle of purring affection.

He lived with them for thirteen years, thank you very much.

“You don’t play with people’s feelings,” her mother scolded once.

It was Uncle Will that defended her. “It’s all right, El. It helps.”

“Our Darcy is a walking talking antidepressant,” Uncle Dustin quipped.

“Like you need one,” her mom sassed back.

After that, Darcy was more careful. Her aunts, uncles, and cousins were off-limits. She learned to hold her powers back.

Except with Uncle Will.

He would reach out and take her hand and she would bring some feelings to the front and push others back. She couldn’t create emotions in people or make them go away. They were more complicated than her cat. But she could re-order them. Make them bigger or fainter.

It was the least she could do for him.

* * *

“I thought I told everybody to get some sleep,” Darcy raised an eyebrow at Bucky.

He was sitting on the end of the motel pool’s diving board, “Look who’s talking.”

“Can’t sleep. Tomorrow is gonna suck for me,” Darcy complained as she sat down on one of the old pieces of lounge furniture that surrounded the pool.

“You don’t like using your powers, do you?”

She shrugged. It was more nuanced than liking or not liking her powers. It wasn’t the time for that conversation.

He got up with feline grace and made his way over to sit across from her.

“You don’t have to. We can find another way.”

“I have to. I have to get it done so my mom _doesn’t_ have to.”

He narrowed his eyes a little and contemplated, “You’re protective of her.”

“Look who’s an empath now,” she teased. “Mom’s been through enough. She and my dad have been at war with the Upside Down since they were kids.”

“A lot of burden to place on a kid,” Bucky tilted his head a little and regarded her some more.

“Right? And it's bullshit, you know? Total bullshit.” Darcy realized she sounded like her aunt Nancy then and smiled a little wistfully.

“Does your dad have powers?”

“No. He’s just… Dad can always find _trouble_.”

“Like Steve? He could always find trouble.” He smiled faintly and then added, “I feel like I need to keep tabs on him. Now that we’re together again. Just like when we were kids.”

“Hmmm,” Darcy knowingly narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips ever so slightly.

“What?”

“Well, it doesn’t take an empath to figure out that the last thing you need is to be on the run with the Secret Avengers. Not really conducive to healing, dude.”

“Yeah, well…” he looked down, letting his hair cover his eyes.

“Hmm,” she regarded him thoughtfully.

Peeking up he asked, “You using your powers on me, Angelface?”

“Nope. I almost never do that without permission…unless you’re a monster. Then it’s fair game.”

He shrugged, “Maybe I am a monster.”

She narrowed her eyes and scolded, “Dude, I know a monster when I’m around one, and you aren’t it. Monsters don’t put the needs of their buddy ahead of their own.”

“You sure about that?” He offered his right hand, “Poke around if you want. You have my permission.”

She took his hand in hers and looked at it first, turning it over in her hand. She felt his gaze on her and stopped and just squeezed it instead. She closed her eyes. Carefully, she reached out with her mind…

Her mind was flooded with fear, sadness, despair, guilt. It was almost too much. The tears started rolling down her face.

Faintly, she could hear him telling her, “Angelface, you should stop. I’m sorry. I didn’t think.”

But there…an ember of hope. She stoked that ember with her powers until it started to flare up. It wasn’t enough, not yet. The hope hadn’t caught fire. But it was so much closer.

She opened her eyes and he was staring across at her, tears running down his own face.

Darcy didn’t know what possessed her exactly, but she crawled into his lap and wrapped her arms around him. And even though he was technically holding her, she rocked him, almost like a child, and told him just how awful she felt about all of that despair, “I’m so sorry, Bucky, so sorry.”

He tightened his one arm around her and assured her, “You helped. Thank you, Angel, you helped.”

* * *

Natasha wrapped herself around Wanda’s back. She looped one arm over the girl’s waist and snuggled herself closer.

She was starting to feel cold herself, but it didn’t compare with Wanda’s violent shiver.

The last time one of the monsters found them, she swore that she heard Wanda say something like, “Don’t bother.”

If Wanda thought that Nat would just let her give up like that, she had another thing coming.

“Hey,” Nat squeezed the girl’s arm. “Time to check-in.”

“I’m okay,” Wanda replied, teeth chattering all the while. “Any sign of them?”

“Not yet. But I can see the other side.”

Natasha gestured with her head, even though Wanda couldn’t see her.

Wanda had found a place where the fabric between this dimension and the one they belonged in seemed thinner.

Nat could see the walls of the building that they had been in before they’d been sucked through the energy field. They weren’t at that gateway, but they were near the lobby. She saw Steve come in yesterday. She saw him leave with three people, one that had looked suspiciously like Dr. Foster. She wondered if she should have called for him.

But the creatures were attracted to the noise. And Wanda was weak. She couldn’t take that chance.

Now it seemed her patience had been a mistake.

* * *

Bucky hated the arm that Hydra had forced upon him. But today he was wishing for it. In his right hand, he held a baseball bat, covered with nails.

What he wanted, was to reach out and touch Darcy Lewis with his left. Just a small touch, a hand at the small of her back. To tell her that he was there. He supported her.

She turned and gave him a little smile. Like maybe she knew.

The group made their way on foot from the guardhouse to the building. Halfway across the parking lot, Darcy’s phone rang. The entire group jumped.

“Shit,” she muttered. She pulled out her phone and swiped upwards.

From his place, hovering over Darcy’s shoulder, he could see two faces on the screen. Both were in their mid-forties. The woman had big brown eyes, wavy chocolate hair, and fine features. The man was very obviously Darcy’s father. He had the same straight but prominent nose, full lips, fair skin, and jet black hair.

“Momma…” Darcy began.

“Darcy,” it was her dad that scolded, “Are you kidding me? Wait for us. Your aunts are twenty minutes away.”

“My aunts aren’t Captain America,” Darcy argued. “I have _Captain America_. Plus his super cute war buddy. Say hi, Bucky.”

Bucky didn’t say hi. He just swallowed hard.

Darcy’s mother was blunt, “Demogorgons?”

“And Demodogs.”

“No,” her mother said simply.

“Mom, there are people trapped in the Upside Down. They won’t make it another night. I have to try.”

Her mother narrowed her eyes at Bucky and made a belated, “Hi, Bucky.”

Bucky raised the baseball bat awkwardly, as a hello.

Her dad let out a long-suffering sigh before he spoke.

“Trust your friends,” her dad advised. “Watch out for each other. Get your people out and then get out of the building. We’re on our way. We’ll close the gate.”

Darcy flicked her eyes to her mom’s face. “Trust me, mom. I can do this.”

“I trust you,” her mother replied, but her face wasn’t exactly convincing.

“I’m in good hands, mom. They’ll protect me. I can close the gate.”

“Darcy…” her dad began.

Then with forced cheerfulness Darcy called out, “Okay, I love you, bye!” and abruptly ended the call.

Darcy leaned back a bit until her shoulders were just touching Bucky’s chest. Then she smiled brightly and said, “And let that be a reminder to us all to silence our cell phones.”

* * *

.

Darcy stood at the entrance, holding on to the handle. She saw Bucky glance down at her hands and knew he was pretending not to notice that they were shaking.

She could do this. She could lead. She just needed to convey a certain… something.

“Okay, listen up. I need to conserve my power as much as I can. We’re gonna get swarmed by Demodogs. They’re nasty. And if I have to use my power to stop them, I will. But it will seriously limit my ability to get to the gate and rescue your friends. And I definitely won’t be able to close it if I’m drained. So use the bats. Okay?

Sam flipped the bat in his hands. “Got it.”

Steve also nodded, “Batter up.”

Bucky’s voice was a rumble over her shoulder. “I’ll watch your back, Angelface.”

“No. I’ll watch yours. Clear my path. Get me to the gate. Got it?”

“We’ve got it, Darce,” Jane promised.

* * *

They didn’t have it.

Steve got way too into using the ball-bat on the Demodogs.

The rest of the group weren’t even out of the lobby when Steve moved into one of the hallways. The wrong hallway.

“Rogers get your ass back here,” Sam complained.

“Don’t worry, we ain’t going anywhere, Darcy.”

Darcy allowed herself a little feeling of joy at Bucky’s little declaration.

Then she froze.

She could feel them. The demogorgons were rounding the other hallway. There was really only one choice.

“RUN!”


	5. Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fills Ladies of Marvel 2020 Bingo square D4 "Rescue Mission"

“RUN!”

Natasha could hear the voice screaming.

“Wanda, get up, we need to get to the spot.”

“What spot?” Wanda shivered and her teeth chattered hard in her mouth.

“The spot you found, where we can see the other side.”

Natasha pulled the girl to her feet and supported most of her body weight as they limped towards the membrane where they could see their world.

The air was thick but cold. With wispy tendrils in the air that made them choke. Wanda’s weight was almost too much for Nat to hold. Sheer determination kept her on her feet. That and through the membrane she could see, “Sam!”

* * *

Sam was almost bit. He was on the ground with jaws snapping at his face. ‘This is it,’ he thought, ‘this is how I go out.’

He started to close his eyes when suddenly, the creature's head snapped back when a bat made contact with its chin. Sam looked up at Bucky who gave him a simple nod.

At the entrance to the hallway, Darcy and Jane had wedged Darcy’s bat into the two handles on the double door, effectively blocking the demogorgons from following them from the lobby.

Sam appreciated the effort, but they still had a pack of demodogs to deal with. Last night, Bucky had come back to their room and he told Sam that Darcy’s mother and father had battled the Upside Down when they were children.

Children. And they were barely holding their own with three adults and two super soldiers.

Steve was wrestling two of them simultaneously. With his hands. Like an idiot.

“Dumbass, use your bat!” Sam yelled.

“Dumbass is right,” Barnes agreed with a nod. If there was anything Bucky and Sam could agree on, it was that Steve was reckless and stupid sometimes.

Steve snapped the neck of one of the demodogs. At the same time, one jumped on his back. No one could come to his assistance because Sam, Bucky and Jane each started swinging at a creature of their own. Darcy was weaponless and hanging back near the double doors which were banging and banging. She tried to hold it against the demogorgons snarling on the other side.

The first crack of the baseball bat in the door echoed throughout the hall, even louder than the snarling demodogs and the thuds of the group hitting the creatures.

“It’s not holding,” Darcy yelled.

Bucky’s creature was finally dead, and he moved towards Darcy. Sam wasn’t surprised. He could tell that guy was utterly smitten.

Meanwhile, Foster had dispatched hers and was pummelling the creature on Steve’s back.

Sam finally killed his with one last blow to the head, and then heard it, a familiar voice calling out, “Sam! Steve!”

“Natasha?”

As the last of the creatures died, a victim of Jane Foster’s shockingly wicked backhand, they could hear it more clearly. Natasha’s voice in between the banging of the doors.

“We have to get to the gate before the Demogorgans bust through,” Darcy commanded.

“But, Natasha is here. She’s here,” Steve argued, pointing at nothing.

“She’s not here. She’s in the Upside Down. I need you to trust me. Sometimes you can’t get through the membrane. We have to go through the _gate_.” Darcy had her hands on Steve’s arms and was looking up at him with determination. “Steve,” she added, “Please. Trust me.”

Sam made Steve’s decision for him, “We trust you.”

Suddenly the banging stopped and the Demogorgons on the other side of the door roared. That was followed by three loud gunshots.

A voice was on the other side of the door. Muffled but just loud enough to hear, “Darcy Jane Lewis, I know you are in there.”

Darcy hurriedly removed the splintered bat from the door.

She opened it to reveal a red-haired woman in her mid-forties wearing a plaid shirt and jeans. In her hands she held a shotgun. Next to her was a taller woman with dishwater blonde hair. She was armed with a flamethrower and a bat of her own slung over her back.

“What, you couldn’t wait ten minutes?” The redhead scolded.

“Mom said twenty,” Darcy retorted.

“Not the way your aunt drives.” The blonde woman appraised the group and then asked, “So, are these the dumbasses that opened the gate?”

“These are said dumbasses. Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes, and Captain Freaking America, And you probably know that this is Jane Foster, my boss.”

“Hey kids, I’m Max, this is Robin.”

And it made no sense to Sam, but he felt a sense of relief at the sight of these two women. Maybe Darcy was projecting her own emotions. But frankly, Sam didn’t care.

* * *

“This is a bad plan,” Bucky mumbled.

“It’s a very good plan, actually,” Darcy’s aunt Max argued.

“What is the plan again?” Jane asked, not because she didn’t understand, but because she didn’t like it either.

“Darcy is going to take Steve and Sam through the gate into the Upside Down and find their teammates. The rest of us…”

Bucky finished, “We keep those things off of their asses.”

Max smiled up at him, “I like him.”

Robin planted a kiss on Darcy’s forehead. “Be careful. If you get killed, your Uncle Steve will kill me.”

Under her breath, Jane asked, “Jesus, Darce, how many aunts and uncles do you have?”

“Biologically? One aunt. The rest are just…pains in my ass,” Darcy steered Sam towards the stairwell, with Steve hot on their heels.

“Be careful,” Bucky said softly.

“Yeah,” Max added, “Don’t get dead.”

* * *

Steve looked really uncomfortable in the hazmat suit. He kept pulling at the sleeves and chest.

“S’too tight,” he mumbled.

Meanwhile, Darcy had bunching around her ankles and wrists that made everything even more uncomfortable.

Steve stopped complaining as soon as they passed through the gateway into the Upside Down.

Sam let out a quiet, “Shit.”

“Not a vacation spot,” Darcy agreed.

It was dark, but not the usual grey darkness that you’d see at night. But instead, an inky navy darkness engulfed them. Wherever their flashlights hit, there was an eerie orange glow. Flesh-like tendrils coated every surface, like spiderwebs. And in the air, spores the looked like cotton floated around, threatening to invade their airways.

Steve looked to Darcy and raised his eyebrows in question.

She nodded in return.

“Natasha? Wanda?” He called out.

They began to walk through the unstable landscape, calling for the two missing women.


	6. Six

Max grabbed Jane’s dropped bat and slammed it into the demodog’s face before he took a bite out of her. Bucky followed up with another blow, sending the creature skidding down the hallway. Robin then turned the flame thrower on him.

The second pack attacked just after Sam and Steve left with Darcy. Bucky was grateful that they came from a different direction. That meant Darcy hadn’t run into them.

Max extended her hand and helped Jane to her feet after they had dispatched the last one.

Robin arched an eyebrow at Bucky, “Nice hitting, champ.”

“Thanks.”

“You got a thing for our Darcy?”

“Um…” Bucky looked around at three pairs of expectant female gazes. He sputtered out a non-response.

After several moments of Bucky’s visible discomfort, Max let out a soft laugh, “You’re so mean, Robin.”

“Calling it like I see it,” Robin then nodded towards the double doors, “Demogorgon, incoming.”

“Oh good, much easier than the dogs,” Max said.

“Really? They’re bigger,” Robin argued. The Demogorgon came at them with a roar.

“But they’re slower,” Max argued right back, shooting it with the shotgun.

It roared some more and took a few more steps. “Meaner,” Robin argued.

Max smacked it with her bat and then asked, “You really think so? I think the dogs are meaner.”

Bucky then hit it down the hall so that Max could unleash the flame thrower on it.

As the Demogorgon was dying Robin asserted, “I think the dogs seem meaner because they are usually in a pack. It’s like the T-Rex versus the velociraptors in Jurassic Park.”

“Hmmm, good point.”

Jane and Bucky looked at the two women in awe.

Jane offered, “You’re being awfully casual about all of this.

Robin laughed, “Once you’ve listened to Dustin sing the theme song to the Never Ending Story over a CB radio while you’re being chased by a mind-flayer, you tend to be hard to faze.”

Max added, “We’ve been doing this for a looong time.”

* * *

“I can walk,” Natasha protested.

“You really can’t,” Sam argued back, his breath steaming up the mask in the hazmat suit.

Steve was already walking ahead with Wanda in his arms. He was steady on his feet despite the instability of the ground.

Natasha attempted several more steps and swatted at Sam when he tried to steady her.

“Nat, come on. Stop being stubborn.”

Darcy came to Sam’s defense, “We’re kind of in a hurry, so….”

Natasha turned to Darcy and arched one perfect eyebrow at her. “Listen, Dr. Foster’s assistant…”

“Darcy.”

“I know. I’m not a damsel in distress, okay? I can walk.” Really, it didn’t surprise Sam at all that Natasha knew exactly who Darcy was. She was a spy, after all.

Darcy tried to reason with her, “Of course not. No damseling from you. It’s just…you’ve been inhaling a toxic atmosphere for a while now and you’re just a little unsteady on your feet. And there are monsters I would really like to avoid.”

“I know there are monsters, I’ve killed six. How many have you killed?”

Darcy sighed and looked over at Sam.

He was utterly exasperated and admitted, “I can’t pick her up against her will. Even now, I think she could kick my ass.”

Darcy crossed her arms over her chest. “Okay, listen. You’re bad ass. I completely am on board with that fact. But if you don’t let Sam carry you, I will _make_ you let Sam carry you.”

Natasha let out a sound that sounded very much like a scoff. Sam arched an eyebrow at Darcy.

Challenge accepted, Darcy narrowed her eyes at her and surprisingly, the spy relented.

“Fine. I feel like crap anyway.”

Sam took a step towards Natasha when they heard it, a pack of demodogs coming at them.

“Ah, hell,” Sam muttered. Then he yelled, “Steve! Incoming!”

Darcy took a deep breath and commanded, “Take her and run.”

“But…”

“Do it!”

Sam picked up Natasha and started to move as fast as he could.

He left Darcy behind.

* * *

There were too many.

Robin and Max had long since stopped joking about the monsters. The demogorgons had left Jane bleeding and unconscious. Bucky had a gash across his chest that was bleeding profusely.

Still, he held up the bat to defend his new friends.

He had no illusion about whether this situation was survivable. It wasn’t.

* * *

Darcy stumbled her way towards the gate. The pack of demodogs that threatened the rescue mission had been taken care of. Darcy had drained them of their will to live. But she was drained too.

Her vision was blurry and her limbs felt like lead. She had a pit of nausea in her stomach and her head was pounding.

She wasn’t going to make it…


	7. Seven

Steve deposited Wanda on the ground back in their world. He checked her pulse and watched her breathing. She was alive.

Sam, strode through the gate a few minutes later, carrying Natasha towards through the opening. Sam laid Nat next to Wanda and Steve’s fingers immediately sought out her pulse as well.

Then Steve looked towards the opening where another figure should have been emerging. But she wasn’t.

“Where’s Darcy?” Steve asked.

Sam sat down hard on the floor and ripped the hood off of his suit, breathing hard, “Kicking ass, I hope.”

“I’m going after her,” Steve announced.

Sam laid down next to Natasha and admitted, “Yeah. I figured.”

* * *

Bucky stepped between Max and the creature. He grabbed it by the neck and squeezed as it roared in his face.

Robin picked up his discarded bat and pummeled it about its head.

Max was down, next to Jane. She had been knocked hard against a wall.

A new, vaguely familiar voice commanded, “Throw it!”

Bucky pushed the creature away with all his might. And then he watched in awe as it flew up and slammed against the ceiling, then down to the ground, right and then left over and over until it was pounded into nothing.

Standing there, was the woman from Darcy’s phone. Her mother.

“Where is she?”

“The gate,” Bucky answered.

The woman strode purposefully past them. “Hold down the fort,” she commanded the group of men that followed her.

Darcy’s father followed her mom down the hall towards the gate.

A friendly-looking man with curly hair and a wide smile started tending to Jane. Another man, with thick dark hair, checked on Max.

Standing in front of Bucky was the third man. “Hey, I’m Lucas.”

Three other people stood farther down the hallway. Lucas explained, “That’s Nancy, Jonathan, and Will. Over there,” he nodded towards the two people providing medical assistance, “are Dustin and Steve.”

Dustin actually smiled and waved. Then he frowned, “Dude, you are bleeding bad. Get over here.”

“M’fine,” Bucky protested.

“He’s right,” Lucas said, “Demogorgons can smell blood. We need to patch you up. We’ve got this. No better shot on the planet than Nancy. Not even your Hawkguy.”

* * *

Sam waited for Steve while he watched over Wanda and Natasha. Both of them were unconscious, and he couldn’t carry them both. So he waited. And waited.

He jumped when the door opened and grabbed his bat. But it was a woman. A woman who barely acknowledged his existence except to tell the man with her, “Help them.”

“El,” the man protested.

“Mike, help them. I’ll get our daughter.”

She strode into the gate without any protection.

* * *

Darcy felt herself being lifted and she tried to open her eyes.

“I’ve got you, Darcy,” Steve told her.

“Cap,” she breathed out.

She felt his sure steps carry her towards the gate and then heard the most wonderful voice she knew.

“Darcy?”

“Momma?” she muttered.

She heard a sigh of relief and then, “You’re….grounded.”

* * *

Darcy shot up straight in bed, “The gate!”

Her mother’s voice said quietly from the corner of the room, “It’s closed.”

She glanced around the room. She was back in the motel. Her dad sat down on the bed next to her, making the mattress dip.

“How are you feeling?”

“Fine. Better,” she lied. Her head was pounding.

Darcy smiled at her mom, who sat down on her other side.

“You should have waited for me,” her mom scolded. But there was no real conviction behind it. Her mom reached up and smoothed Darcy’s hair.

“Is everyone okay?” Darcy asked, “Jane?”

“Everyone will be,” her dad promised. “You’re brave. You get that from your mom.”

“And you’re an idiot. You get that from Mike.”

She took each of their hands in hers and closed her eyes and laid back down. She reached out with her mind and touched theirs. She emersed herself in love and went back to sleep.

* * *

Uncle Steve and Uncle Jonathan were politely helping Sam, Natasha, and Wanda load their gear.

Her dad and the rest of her uncles were geeking out over Jane.

Captain America was ten feet away and they were geeking out over _Jane_. Darcy really did love the idiots.

Almost as if she could read Darcy’s mind, Aunt Max commented, “They’d find him a lot more interesting if he still had his shield.”

Aunt Robin agreed, “They’d be like they were thirteen years old again if they could see that shield.”

Sam walked over and gave Darcy a little pat on her shoulder. “We’re headed out soon. Sure you don’t want to come with?”

Darcy opened her mouth to answer when she realized he was talking to her mom. The display she put on when closing the gate must have been impressive.

“Where are you going to go?” Darcy’s mom asked.

“Wherever we’re needed,” Sam replied.

Darcy took advantage of her mom becoming distracted by Sam to approach Bucky.

“Hey.”

He smiled shyly at her, “Hey Angelface.”

“You gonna tell him?”

“Yeah. Not gonna be easy. But the triggers Hydra put in me are still in my head. I need to find a way to get them out or I won’t ever feel like I’m safe to be around.”

“I hope you find a way. I really do.”

“Well thanks to you, I believe I can.”

“Hope is a good thing.”

He nodded, “Yeah. It is.”


	8. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Make sure you read Ch. 7 first.

**Six years later**

**Upstate New York**

Jane polished off her turkey and spinach wrap and wiped the little bit of escaped mayonnaise off the side of her mouth.

Darcy complained, loudly, “Remind me to never let you drive again. You’re a menace.”

“I love you too.”

Jane reached over and grabbed Darcy’s hand and squeezed. Darcy let Jane’s emotions flood over her. Affection, anticipation, and contentment. Nice. It was almost unspoken now that Darcy could reach out to Jane’s emotions whenever Jane touched her. It was comforting to be able to use her powers. Still, she teased, “You really think that’s gonna work, Janie? I hate secrets. Letting me feel your emotions doesn’t change the fact that you won’t tell me where we are going!”

“It’s a surprise. You’re gonna love it.”

Jane smirked a little and released Darcy’s hand. She reached for the cupholder and raised her strawberry banana smoothie to her mouth. After she took a long drag on the straw, she repeated, “You’re gonna love it.”

* * *

“I didn’t know we had people arriving today,” Bucky noted as the van pulled up. Whoever they were they breezed through security.

“New scientists,” Sam said with the slightest hint of a smile.

“Hmmm,” Bucky grumbled. “They been vetted?”

Sam smiled wider, “I have a feeling they would pass even your rigorous standards.”

The van was going a little too fast and the tires squealed as it came to a stop.

Sam let out a chuckle when Bucky’s jaw dropped at the sight of Darcy climbing out of the passenger seat.

He expected Barnes to stammer and blush.

That didn’t happen. Instead, Bucky strode purposely forward and took Darcy’s face in his hands. He bent to kiss her and… The slam of the other car door interrupted them.

Poor Barnes didn’t even get a word in before Jane Foster was yammering on about the conductivity of vibranium and whether his new arm was stable molecularly. Then she was shoving a bag in Sam’s arms to carry.

“Move it, kids,” Jane demanded, “We’ve got work to do. Lost five damned years already.”

Sam glanced back at Bucky and Darcy who were looking at each other longingly.

“Let’s GO!” Jane yelled.

Darcy let out an exasperated, “We’ll be right there, Jane…jeez!”

Sam laughed again, “Let’s let them catch up, huh?”

“Yeah…yeah…” She stomped into the compound. “So while you guys were rebuilding this place, I figured out how to destroy the Upside Down.”

“What? Really?”

“I thought about reserving a flight, then I remembered you guys had those fancy jets. Max and Robin are expecting us for dinner tomorrow. Speaking of which, I’m starving. Got anything decent to eat around here?”

“Um…yeah, what do you want?”

“Anything but Pop-Tarts.”

* * *

They were gone and Darcy was finally alone with Bucky. She’d been thinking about him nonstop since she left Hawkins (minus that five years where she apparently was snapped out of existence).

And now she couldn’t come up with anything to say except, “Hey…”

His right hand was ghosting over the skin on her face and even with that faint touch, she could feel the emotions that he was projecting.

Affection, desire, and….oh a _lot_ of desire. Okay.

His left hand settled in the small of her back and he pulled her tight. Just before their lips met he replied, “Hey yourself, Angelface.”

END


End file.
